Westminster weblog

The Telegraph's leading political team of George Jones, Andrew Gimson, Brendan Carlin, Andrew Sparrow, Alice Thomson and Toby Helm continue their daily online diary as they chase the three party leaders around the country, picking up on the speeches, slip-ups and stresses.

Monday, April 25

Today's weblog is from George Jones.

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Off to 8,30am Labour press conference. Wet and grey morning. Central London gridlocked. Inside Labour HQ the party blasts out its "beautiful day" theme tune. When Tony Blair arrives he is the good humour.

Labour's theme for the day is the economy and the revival of Britain's cities - Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle. John Prescott makes a rare appearance on the national stage. He hates the media and sits grumpily eyeballing the assembled press.

But all the media wants to do is question Mr Blair about Iraq and the new revelations that the Cabinet was not told the Attorney General's doubts about the legality of the war.

Mr Blair is put under pressure by Jon Snow (Channel 4 News) and Andew Neil (BBC, Daily Politics). The Prime Minister stands by his decision, admits that he is unlikely to change anybody's mind on the war now, but that he acted in good faith.

I challenge him on what he feels about being called a "liar" by Tory leader Michael Howard. Mr Blair looks stumped for a moment or two. Then claims the Tories are making personal attacks because they don't want to talk about the economy, etc. You would hardly believe that Labour have spent the whole time attacking Michael Howard's character.

Gordon Brown reveals he has found a new heroine - Margaret Thatcher. She has been airbrushed out of the Conservative campaign. But Mr Brown keeps invoking her memory, saying she stood for something on the economy and would not have approved of the Tory campaign. Strange, he does not mention any of his Labour predecessors who gave us 98 per cent tax rates.

Toby Helm watches Mr Howard kick-off his day by launching the Conservatives's bid for the business vote. The Tories, he says, will cut taxes and regulation, abolish Labour's New Deal for getting the jobless back to work and axe 235,000 bureaucratic jobs to make the country leaner and more efficient.

But although business is the chosen theme of the day, it is not what journalists want to talk about. Much of their interest is in whether the Tory leader still believes he can win on May 5. Suspicion that Mr Howard has already thrown in the towel is prompted by Mr Howard's statement that polling day will be the last chance for voters to "send a message" to Mr Blair.

Andrew Marr, the BBC's political editor, picks up on this, telling Mr Howard that he sounds like a defeated man who thinks all he can do is give Mr Blair a good kicking and bruising on his way back to Downing Street for a third term.

Asked if he will be Prime Minister on May 6 Mr Howard ducks the issue. He says he believes the Tories have identified the issues of most concern to the British during the campaign. "But I don't take the votes of the British people for granted," he says. Mr Howard stands by his weekend statement that Mr Blair lied to the public in the run up to the war in Iraq. But he says he still believes it was right to go to get rid of Saddam Hussein.